root salad f22 Steve Ashley
The veteran singer/ songwriter is the subject of a new biography. Simon Jones gets an update.
“T
he thing was, Stroll On constantly evolved and changed. We kept adding bits, taking tracks out. We
started recording songs back in 1971, but things just didn’t go our way. That album went to something like 30 record labels before it finally found a home at Gull. I’d got used to Austin (John Marshall, producer) saying he’d found another company to try so when he got a deal in the end, I wasn’t too sure it was true.”
Steve Ashley and I are discussing his much fêted 1974 debut, which, according to some, ranks amongst the hallowed releases of electric folk. It did feature the only official evidence of the first Albion Country Band before a few BBC sessions leaked, a fact that still fills him with a nos- talgic pride. All these years later he holds deep affection for his early work. “I sup- pose I’d have to say that it represented what I was about really, a deep commit- ment to giving obviously English song a modern identity.”
How does he view the follow-up, the
aptly named Speedy Return? “It suffered from an identity crisis,” he
S
confides. “Stroll On obviously was a sea- sonal song cycle, but Speedy Return was far more of a personal selection. Gull wanted me to do a singer-songwriter album and argued over having Austin as producer, so I chose Robert Kirby, who added some bril- liant orchestral arrangements.” (Kirby of course is famed for his work with Nick Drake.) Summing up, he describes Speedy Return as “more life, less lore.”
o why are we in retro mode? What’s brought on the glance over the shoulder to 40 years ago? Well, there’s a wonderful new tome on the shelves which details Ashley’s career path and places it intelligently in context to both time and circumstance.
“I was really pleased about that. Whilst I’m the focus, the writing also describes how other pieces fitted into the jigsaw,” he concedes. Steve’s is some road to map and author Dave Thompson is just the chap to guide along the twists and turns which ultimately end up at Fire & Wine: An Armchair Guide To Steve Ashley (reviewed in fR371). Armchairs and Steve Ashley make an incongruent pairing: after all he spent a fair proportion of his time as a CND activist. There’s a superb photo included from 1981 of a grinning Steve popping up between two peace veterans, Lord Noel Baker and Bruce Kent. He cut albums for the movement, played a massive CND rally at Hyde Park, even got involved in a ruckus over a peace camp.
T
Let’s talk Ragged Robin. “Poor thing,” mutters its creator, “it never flew very high or for very long.” The Robin was Steve’s attempt at a proper group along with Richard Byers, Brian Diprose and John Thompson, rehearsing a fresh batch of Steve’s compositions in Suffolk. Support to Steeleye Span swiftly ensued and before you could say Old John England, trad diva Anne Briggs had nabbed them to back her on her next CBS album. “We thought we were on our way, but complications set in and the album was withdrawn. Anne was unhappy about the way her career was heading and she just upped and left music behind.” Some 25 years later, Sing A Song For You finally saw the light of day. Mean- time Ragged Robin, though gigging like mad all over the country, “decided to call it a day. There was very little money and most of that was mine from album sales and publishing. I just couldn’t sustain a four-piece folk rock band.”
ime passed and the next proper Ashley release didn’t appear until 1983, some eight years after Speedy Return. The Family Album “is basically about relationships and relatives.” Fairport stepped in to issue the record as part of the first flush of Woodworm releases. The then-current Convention were all over the sessions. One thing I’ve always wondered, Steve, was the guy in the dog costume you? He shifts uneasily in his seat, “Yeah, it is me. Actually…” he leans closer, as if to divulge some great secret, “it’s a dog mask and a squirrel costume.”
Asked about the work he’s proudest of, without hesitation he identifies Time & Tide from 2007 on Topic. Had he had any reservations about signing with what might seem to many a hard-line folk label? “Not in the least. When I was getting into folk music it was Topic’s early releases I sought, all those little EPs, Ewan MacColl, blues or folk. I devoured everything on Topic. I love traditional music and have always used it as basis for my writing, so to be with Topic was an honour as well as quite fitting.”
You can find out more about his merry tale by purchasing Fire & Wine from his website or why not catch him with special sessions at Sidmouth and Cropredy?
Before we part he’s keen to inform he has a whole stack of new songs ready to go and he’s just waiting for the right time before the next album is among us. He plays one by way of evidence: Here’s To All The Babies, a lovely tune which shows he’s lost none of his wit or way with words. Top chap Steve Ashley, top chap.
steveashley.co.uk F
Photo: David Angel
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